Playing Red Herring the other day, I never would have put Southern Illinois with clam etc in the Chowder category. Have you ever heard of it? I grew up in Northern Illinois and up here it’s more about potlucks and pancake breakfasts where pancakes are the least of it.

Here’s a recipe I found, but others seemed to have lots of fresh tomatoes. One story was that it comes out around the time tomatoes are ripening. I saw a couple of newspaper articles from southern Illinois mentioning the chowder being held, kettles fire up at 5:00 am, soup available at 11 by the bowl or by the gallon, and they still needed volunteers to cut up vegetables at 5:30.

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A local Specialty. Kinda like a Kentucky Burgoo. Kahuna

Chowder also refers to the event, not just the soup. This is an annual gathering of
friends, neighbors, and former residents who return to taste this once again, and visit while
listening perhaps to a bluegrass group or other local entertainment. This is an outdoor event,
centered around the 20 or so huge pots of chowder cooking over open fires, being stirred with
oar-sized paddles by several patient menfolk. I finally got around to whittling down the
recipe I was given (it makes 450 gallons!) to managable size, so I'll share now. This is
labor intensive, but OH so good. Comfort food deluxe! It's at its best when cooked in a cast
iron pot over an open fire all day, but my top-of-the-electric range version was very tasty,
too.
Southern IL Chowder

1 gallon water
1 1/2 lb beef, cut in chunks
1 1/4 lb boneless chicken, cut up
1 small head cabbage, chopped
3 large stalks celery, chopped
2-3 c. carrots, diced
1 large onion, chopped
2 qt. peeled and diced potatoes
2 1/2 c. fresh or frozen green beans, thawed if frozen
1 15.25 oz can lima beans, drained
24 oz tomato sauce (and liquid from washing out cans)
1 1/2 c. fresh or frozen corn, thawed if frozen
Salt and pepper to taste (be generous with the pepper)

Bring water to boil in large pot. Add beef and cook gently for an hour, stirring frequently.
Add chicken and continue to cook gently for another 1 1/2 hours, stirring frequently. Add cabbage, celery, and carrots. Cook for another 1/2 hour, stirring frequently. Add onions, then 15 minutes later the potatoes. Cook, remembering to stir to keep from sticking, for 45 more minutes. Add green beans. Cook another hour. Add lima beans, and cook a final 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Near the end of the cook time, add the tomato sauce, corn, and salt and pepper and heat through.

Notes: The goal is to keep this at a low boil the entire time. Boiling water may be added as needed. The stirring keeps the soup from sticking, and also breaks up the chunks, resulting in a very thick soup wiith lots of body and basically some small lumps by the end of the cook time--which indeed is 5 1/2 hours!

>From now on when I make this I will make at least a double batch, if not triple or quadruple, to make it really worth my while being tied to the kitchen to such an extent. I wanted to make sure I could achieve the desired results before I committed to much in the line of ingredients; I could, so I'll definitely be filliing my freezer, as well as family and friends', with this very soon.

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bpath here: note, I did not write that last bit of commentary!